VISIONS FROM THE EARTH
Set by John Mitchell (1941-), op. 17 (1976)
Texts by Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
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1. A vision
I saw a spirit standing, Man,
Where thou dost stand an hour ago,
And round his feet three rivers ran
Of equal depth and equal flow
A Golden Stream, and one like blood
And one like sapphire, seemed to be
But where they joined their triple flood
It tumbled in an inky sea
The spirit bent his dazzling gaze
Down on that ocean's gloomy night,
Then kindling all with sudden blaze,
The glad deep sparkled wide and bright
White as the sun, and far more fair
That their divided sources were!
And for that spirit Seer,
I've watched and sought my lifetime long
Sought him in Heaven, Hell, Earth and Air
An endless search and always wrong!
Had I but seen his glorious eye
Once light the cloud surrounding me,
I ne'er had raised this coward cry
To cease to think and cease to me.
2. Cold in the earth
Cold in the earth, the deep snow piled above thee!
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my Only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all wearing wave?
Cold in the earth, and fifteen wild Decembers
From those brown hills have melted into spring
Faithful indeed the spirit that remembers
After years of change and suffering!
Sweet love of youth,
Forgive if I forget thee
While the World's tide is bearing me along;
No other Sun has lightened up my heaven;
No other Star has ever shone for me;
All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given
all my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.
But when the days of golden dreams had perished
Even despair was powerless to destroy
Then did I check the tears of useless passion,
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
And even yet, I dare not let it languish
Dare not indulge in Memory's rapturous pain;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?
3. To Imagination
When weary with the long day's care
And earthly change from pain to pain
And lost and ready to despair
Thy kind voice calls me back again
O my true friend, I am not alone
While thou canst speak with such a tone!
Thou art ever there to bring
The hovering visions back and breathe
New glories o'er the blighted spring
And call a lovelier life from death
And whisper with a voice divine
Of real worlds as bright as thine.
O my true friend, I am not alone
While thou canst speak with such a tone!
4. Come, walk with me
Come, walk with me,
There's only thee
To bless my spirit now
Come, walk with me,
There's only thee
To bless my spirit now
We used to love on winter nights
To wander thru the snow;
Can we not woo back our delights?
The clouds rush dark and wild
They fleck with shade our mountain heights
And on the horizon rest at last
The same as long ago.
Come, walk with me
There's only thee;
We once were not so few,
But Death has stolen our company
He took them one by one and we
Are left the only two;
So closer do my feelings twine
Because they have no stay but thine.
5. Shall Earth no more inspire thee
Shall Earth no more inspire thee,
Thou lonely dreamer now?
Since passion may not fire thee,
Shall nature cease to bow?
Thy mind is ever moving
In regions dark to thee;
Recall its useless roving,
Come back and dwell with me.
I know my mountain breezes
Enchant and soothe thee still
I know my sunshine pleases
Despite thy wayward will.
When day with evening blending
Sinks from the summer sky,
I've seen thy spirit bending in fond idolatry
I've watched thee ev'ry hour
I know my mighty sway
I know my magic pow'r
To drive thy griefs away.
Few hearts to mortals giv'n
On earth so wildly fine
Yet none would ask a Heav'n
More like the Earth than thine
Then let my winds carress thee
Thy comrade let me be
Since naught beside can bless thee,
Return and dwell with me
Return and dwell with me
with me.
6. Child of Delight!
Child of Delight! with sunbright hair
And seablue, seadeep eyes.
Spirit of bliss, what brings thee here
Beneath these sullen skies?
Thou shouldst live in eternal spring
Where endless day is never dim.
Why, seraph has thy erring wing
Borne thee down to weep with him?
'Not from heaven am I descended
I do not come to mingle tears.
But sweet is day though with shadows blended
And though clouded sweet are youthful years
I, the image of light and gladness
Saw and pitied that mournful boy
Swore to take his gloomy sadness
And give to him my beamy joy.
Guardian angel he lacks no more;
My watch will shield him now.'
Child of delight! Child of delight!
Is it Love which brings thee here?
7. Stars
Ah! because the dazzling sun
Restored my earth to joy
Why, have you departed, every one,
And left a desert sky?
Thru the glorious night, your eyes
Were gazing down in mine
And with a full heart's thankful sighs
I blessed that watch divine!
I was at peace, and drank your beams
As they were life to me
Thought followed thought, star followed star
Thru boundless regions on
while one sweet influence near and far,
Thrilled thru and proved us one.
Why did the morning rise to break so great, so pure a spell
And scorch with fire the tranquil cheek
Where your cool radiance fell?
O stars and dreams and Gentle Night
O Night and stars return!
And hide me from the hostile light
That does not warm, but burn
8. The Night Wind
There it is!
It wakes tonight sweet thoughts that will not die
And feelings' fires flash all as bright as in the years gone by!
I can tell by thine altered cheek, by thy kindled gaze,
And by the words thou scarce do speak
How wildly fancy plays.
I could swear the glorious wind has swept the world aside
has dashed its memory from thy mind
Like foambells from the tide
And thou art now a spirit pouring
Thy presence into all
The essence of the tempest's roaring,
And of the tempest's fall
A universal influence
Free from thy control
A principle of life intense,
Sweeping from pole, to pole.
9. How Clear She Shines
How clear she shines!
How quietly I lie beneath her silver light
While Heaven and Earth are whispering to me
"Tomorrow wake, but dream tonight."
Yes fancy come, my spirit love!
These throbbing temples, softly kiss,
And bend my lonely couch above
And bring me rest.
While gazing on the stars that glow
Above me in that stormless sea
I long to hope that all the woe
Creation knows is held in thee!
And this shall be my dream tonight
I'll think the heav'n of glorious spheres
Is rolling on its course of light
In endless bliss, through endless years.
10. The Messenger
He comes with western winds, with evening's wandering airs,
With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest stars;
Winds take a pensive tone, and stars a tender fire
And visions rise and change which kill me with desire
Desire for nothing known in my maturer years,
When joy grew mad with awe at counting future tears;
But first, a hush of peace, a soundless calm descends;
The struggle of distress and fierce impatience ends;
Mute music soothes my breast, unuttered harmony
That I could never dream till earth was lost to me
Then dawns the Invisible, the Unseen its truth reveals;
My outward sense is gone, my inward essence feels
Its wings are almost free, its home, its harbor found;
Measuring the gulf, it stoops and dares the final bound!
O dreadful is the check, intense the agony
When the ear begins to hear and the eye begins to see
When the pulse begins to throb, the brain to think again,
The soul to feel the flesh and the flesh to feel the chain!
Veda il movie!
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